History
The project came into being after Linksys built the firmware for their WRT54G wireless router from publicly available code licensed under the GPL. Under the terms of that license, they were required to make the source code of their modified version available under the same license, enabling independent developers to create additional derivative versions. Support was originally limited to the WRT54G series, but has since been expanded to include many other chipsets, manufacturers and device types, including Plug Computers and Openmoko mobile phones.
Using this code as a base and later as a reference, developers created a distribution that offers many features not previously found in consumer-level routers. Some features formerly required proprietary software. Before the introduction of OpenWrt 8.09, using Linux 2.6.25, and the b43 kernel module, WLAN for many Broadcom-based routers was only available through the proprietary wl.o module that was also only provided for Linux 2.4.
Read more about this topic: Open Wrt
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.”
—Henry Geldzahler (1935–1994)